THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
By Clement C. Moore
Illustrated by Ella Beech
The Folio Society. 42 pp. $60.
(Ages 3 and up)

Does the world need yet another book illustrating the ubiquitous 1823 poem about stockings hung with care and St. Nick coming down the chimney? If it’s this 200th-anniversary edition, in a glow-in-the-dark slipcase, from the Folio Society (the British publisher known for its beautifully bound volumes), it’s hard to be a grinch. Making her debut as an illustrator, Beech, an established children’s book designer and art director in London, offers a rendition that feels like a modern classic. Using acrylic ink, colored pencil and murky watercolor washes, her images are simultaneously detailed and impressionistic, conjuring a lovely, hazy Christmas dream. Fans of cross-section cutaways will swoon at the dollhouse-like views of the family’s home, with its tiled floors, neatly stacked dishes and toy collection. The arrival of St. Nick and his reindeer (“Now, Dasher! Now, Dancer!”) is captured in a climactic gatefold that will prompt extra-happy gazing.

WHO WILL MAKE THE SNOW?
By Taras Prokhasko and Marjana Prokhasko
Illustrated by Marjana Prokhasko
Translated by Boris Dralyuk and Jennifer Croft
Elsewhere Editions. 80 pp. $22.
(Ages 7 to 11)

Know a daydreamy child who still loves stuffed animals but also asks big questions? Originally published in Ukraine, this sweet, strange and quietly philosophical illustrated chapter book follows a year in the life of the newborn twin moles Purl and Crawly, who live in a whimsically imagined woodland community. Their father writes for the forest newspaper; their mother plays the double bass. They have a brush with a hawk, one of them learns to swim, they drink lemonade at the Under the Oak Cafe. Impatient readers beware: This is not a book packed with plot. Akin in spirit and tone to A.A. Milne’s “Winnie the Pooh” and Tove Jansson’s Moomin series, its narrative takes its time, stopping to appreciate the changing seasons and everyday moments of cozy family life, all enchantingly illustrated with soft, scribbly drawings. As with Pooh and the Moomins, subtle hints of anxiety, melancholy and even existentialism underpin the cuteness. The book’s title comes from the moles’ belief that when they die, they rise up and “live among the snowy clouds,” where they make the snow for those left behind.

THE IMAGINARY ALPHABET
By Sylvie Daigneault
Pajama Press. 64 pp. $22.95.
(Ages 5 to 10)

A is for apple and B is for ball, but here the 26 letters of the alphabet are a launching pad for elaborate flights of fancy. For the letter F, for instance, we’re treated to “Fancy Ferrets Feeling Famous and Fabulous.” But fairies, fans, ferns, flames and fountains also populate the page, inviting keen-eyed readers to figure out what else they can find starting with F. The artist’s intricate style and obsessive attention to detail — down to each individual hair of the animals’ slinky coats — is perfectly suited to the undertaking. Using colored pencil, Daigneault (“The Good Garden”) worked on this project for four years, an ever-expanding endeavor that, as she explains in her preface, became more intense due to pandemic lockdowns. Which probably explains the book’s more obscure inclusions, like the fascinator hat worn by one of the ferrets.

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD
Retold and illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman
40th-anniversary edition, with a new foreword by Jason Chin
Holiday House. 32 pp. $18.99.
(Ages 4 to 8)

Hyman (1939-2004), a Caldecott medalist, was acclaimed for her illustrations of fairy tales, which she painted in a lush, romantic style. Her Riding Hood is a singular achievement that doesn’t look like anything else out there, with decorative panels and borders that frame the text and breathtaking renderings of light, shadow, pattern and texture. This is no jokey postmodern retelling: Hyman hews fairly closely to the Grimms’ original text, retaining its spare, ominous language and delivering dramatic art to match. Little Red’s tremulous expression as she enters her grandmother’s cottage, a single flower from her armful of blossoms fallen to the floor (“She felt quite frightened, but she didn’t know why”), is one for the ages. Troubling fact: This version has been banned in at least two school districts for its depiction of wine, which as you might remember from the Grimms’ tale was part of the thoughtful get-well basket.

101 WAYS TO READ A BOOK
By Timothée de Fombelle
Illustrated by Benjamin Chaud
Translated by Karin Snelson and Angus Yuen-Killick
Red Comet. 128 pp. $20.
(Ages 8 and up)

Despite the title, there’s not a lot to actually read here, and that’s part of this book’s oddball charm. A French import, it’s a collection of humorous, loose-limbed drawings and quick one-liners cataloging different ways (body positions, locations, literary predilections) that bibliophiles engage in their favorite activity. “The Spelunker” reads with a headlamp while tucked under a table. “The Sleepwalker,” oblivious to the outside world, is unknowingly walking right into a manhole. “The Snail” takes its sweet time inside a bathroom stall (we see only its feet and a pair of lowered-down pants). An amusing gift for any kid who’s always got her head buried in a book, it might also spark the interest of reluctant readers.

ARTHUR, THE ALWAYS KING
By Kevin Crossley-Holland
Illustrated by Chris Riddell
Candlewick Studio. 240 pp. $29.99.
(Ages 10 and up)

Knights and ladies, a sword in a stone, a round table, Camelot, Lancelot, a magician named Merlin: For many readers these fragments of the King Arthur legend ring a bell but how they add up remains a mystery. Crossley-Holland, the Carnegie Medal-winning novelist, poet and translator who previously interpreted the tales through the lens of young adult fiction with his Arthur trilogy, has now woven them into a heady coffee-table book geared to a middle grade audience. Illustrated with magnificent watercolor-washed line drawings by the three-time Kate Greenaway medalist and former British children’s laureate Riddell (who also illustrated J.K. Rowling’s “The Tales of Beedle the Bard”), it embraces the legend’s complexities and thornier themes. In keeping with the historical weight of the stories, Crossley-Holland’s language is grand and atmospheric.

A WHALE OF A TIME
A Funny Poem for Each Day of the Year
Selected by Lou Peacock
Illustrated by Matt Hunt
Nosy Crow. 336 pp. $40.
(Ages 4 to 8)

Oh, the lucky child who hears a poem a day read aloud from this big book of joy. The idea is simple: a collection of 366 funny verses (mostly rhyming, all short) for every day from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31 in a leap year. The topics are relatable: socks, secrets, brothers, bath time, worms, holidays, annoying parents. The poets include plenty of expected names (Roald Dahl, Edward Lear, Ogden Nash, Jack Prelutsky) and many less well-known talents, like the British dub poet Benjamin Zephaniah, who gets the prized Dec. 25 slot with a poem about turkeys (“Turkeys jus wanna play reggae/Turkeys jus wanna hip-hop/Can yu imagine a nice young turkey saying,/‘I cannot wait for de chop’?”). The visual production is outstanding, too, with bold, playful mixed-media illustrations that match the lighthearted loopiness.

Catherine Hong posts about classic children’s books on Instagram @mrslittlebooks.